The Freight Transport Association (FTA), has welcomed the publication of the Department for Transport’s report on congestion, titled ‘Journey Time Reliability on Motorway and Trunk Roads.’
The FTA says that an investigation into the extent of UK roads congestion and a focus on journey time reliability has been long overdue, and that the next step is to put in place practical and effective measures to improve it.
Chief executive, Richard Turner says: “Road congestion is the blight of UK industry – the resultant loss of reliability together with the actual cost of delays constitutes a colossal waste of man hours and money for individual companies and for the whole economy.”
“Lorry operators make enormous investments in systems, vehicles and IT designed to improve efficiency and customer service. However, much of that investment is negated when they become entangled in the daily congestion which impacts on the UK’s key trade routes.”
The new report is expected to provide high-visibility identification to the worst of the problems, which should allow for the selection of the best solutions. The FTA said that they welcome the Government’s commitment to providing more capacity, to improving the performance of the current network and, ultimately, to the creation of a road pricing system designed to better ration road space. They also point out that the system will have to recognise the essential economic role of freight transport operations.
